Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Workers build scaffolding Friday in preparation for repairs to a column at the Legislative Building. Questions remain about how quake resistant repairs will make the 73-year-old Capitol, which will remain closed until at least Friday.

Capitol future cloudy

Initial figures put building damage at nearly $20 million

BRAD SHANNON AND PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Mar. 12

OLYMPIA -- Crews have begun shoring up the earthquake-damaged stonework in the state's domed Legislative Building, but questions linger about the Capitol's resistance to future earthquakes.

Preliminary earthquake damage estimates released by the state Friday pegged damage at $19.95 million for the Capitol alone. The figure includes repairs to pillars that were knocked out of line and damage to interior walls.

"A future earthquake is a concern," said Marsha Tadano Long, director of the Department of General Administration.

"We know the building is stable now. The question is, in the event of another earthquake, what would be the impact on the building, inside and out?"

Long and other officials are hoping they can get answers to questions like this in the next five days.

The answers will "factor" into the decision on when more than 500 state employees can get back to work inside the 73-year-old building, Long said, adding that she's aware that some employees harbor fears of another quake.

No one has been allowed inside the building, unless with a GA escort, since the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Feb. 28.

"At least through March 16, no one moves back in," Steve Valandra, a spokesman for GA, said Friday. GA is the state's landlord agency.

Mike Wright, a Seattle-based structural engineer who has taken the lead in assessing the Capitol's condition, said he and others will try to ascertain what size quake would lead to more significant structural damage to the Legislative Building.

After that, he said, they will meet with seismologists to find out the probability of an earthquake of that magnitude striking.

"We want to know, could one strike in two weeks? Could one strike in three months? Could one strike in 10 years?" Wright asked.

The most damaging quake to hit the Capitol was in 1949 and measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. That led to repairs that were augmented in the mid-1960s and 1970s, leaving the structure fairly resilient, according to Andy Stepelton, a senior property manager for GA.

"I think the building is safe -- is quite safe," Stepelton said. "The building has had at least three retrofits over the years, and they've made the difference. I don't think the building was ever in danger of imminent collapse."

That doesn't mean the public's fears will go away.

"Even though we may say from a scientific basis that the building is safe, people still have fears," Long said, adding that GA will try to take that into account. "We are keenly aware that people have fear of another earthquake and the damage that could take place. I would not force people to re-occupy the building."

Only a couple million dollars worth of earthquake reinforcement was planned as part of the $87 million upgrade previously planned to the Capitol over the next five years. Last month's quake shows there is a need to do more, Long said.

In the short term, that means putting temporary collars around the tops of 16 pillars that ring the dome structure. The collars will be anchored to a concrete wall that is not visible from the exterior. But, because the collars won't be attractive, "we know we're going to have to permanently repair that," Long said.

It wasn't known before the quake that the pillars were not attached.

No decision has been made on whether the building can be used while the collar repairs are completed, but Long said, "Once the collars are in, we'll be in good shape."

Although one San Francisco-area engineer has suggested the Olympia Capitol could resist an 8.0-magnitude quake if it was outfitted with a ball-bearing suspension system, Valandra said no one has mentioned ideas like that in recent briefings with engineers.

The nearly $20 million damage to the Capitol is part of the $70.2 million damage total reported Friday by the GA to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for buildings overseen by GA on and near the Capitol Campus.

Brad Shannon and Patrick Condon cover state government and politics for The Olympian. They can be reached at 753-1688.

On the web:

Washington State Legislature: Earthquake Information.

Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Earthquake stories archive.

Earthquake links.

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